The
drive strategy is a very essential
part of platform tennis. Placement is EVERYTHING. You must
know when, where, and how to drive at your opponents. When
all these factors are in place, you will have a successful
drive. The drive strategy goes hand in hand with the lob strategy
and a good lob will allow for a good drive opportunity.

First
– When to drive?

Patience
is paramount. If you are not patient in your shot selection,
the success rate of your drives will be low. The most important
aspect of the selection of shots to drive is finding the right
time to drive. Your lobbing strategy will play an important
role in determining when to drive. When lobbing to your opponents
at net, be sure to get your lobs high and deep. When you have
your opponents hitting their overheads from deep in the court
towards their baseline, they will be hard pressed to get back
to net. There a few things to look for when looking for the
right drive opportunity:

- Look
for a short overhead from your opponents.
- Look for a forehand (or whichever is your strongest driving
groundstroke)
- Look for your opponents to be out of position off the net.

When these
factors all come in to play, the drive will have a higher
percentage of success.

Second
– Where to drive?

Knowing
where to drive the ball, when the opportunity presents itself,
is essential. The best place for your drive strategy will
be at the person that is out of position off the net. This
will give you a better chance of making them hit a difficult
low volley. It is also very important during warm-up to look
at how your opponents volley. If they are tennis players then
they will tend to hit more forehand volleys than is prudent.
Around eighty-five percent (85%) of your volleys should be
backhand volleys. Therefore, your strategy should also entail
driving at your opponents’ forehands at net.

Determine
if your opponents are positioned correctly at the net. In
the photos, you see the players in both correct and incorrect
positions at net. If your opponents are standing at the net
incorrectly (as if they were playing tennis), then there is
room to drive both down the line and up the middle where there
are holes in “the wall” (signified by GREEN arrows).
These green arrows show us that these are good spots to drive
the ball at our opponents. In the other photo, we see that
the two players at net are in good position as they form “the
wall” and are ready for a drive. These red arrows show
that the middle and down the line are covered and would be
inadvisable to drive.

Third
– How to drive?

We talk
about how to drive as part of your strategy in relation to
your position on the court. You should not be driving a ball
at your opponents if you are standing in the brown portion
of the court. Look to drive your best groundstroke.

Groundstroke
tip -- Shorten up your back swing and follow through over
the top-half of the ball to keep it low.

In
Summary – you should be patient in your shot
selection and look for a short overhead by your opponents
to move in on and drive – preferably low and at your
opponents forehand volley or the person who is out of position
off the net.